Dunking is the most wanted skill in basketball, and the most misunderstood. It is not a trick you learn, and it is not reserved for people born bouncy — it is a maths problem (your reach plus your jump against a 305 cm rim) followed by a training problem (closing whatever gap the maths reveals) and finally a skill problem (delivering a ball through a hoop at the top of your best jump).
This is the complete guide to all three. Where your gap is big, we will point you at the training that closes it; where you are close, we will show you the technique and progressions that turn rim grazes into dunks.
The dunk equation: how much vertical you actually need
A rim sits at 305 cm (10 ft). To dunk you need to get the ball — not just your fingers — above it, which in practice means your hand needs to reach about 320 cm (10 ft 6 in): rim height plus roughly 15 cm (6 in) of clearance to put the ball down. So:
Required running vertical = 320 cm − your standing reach.
Standing reach is typically around 1.33 times your height, but arms vary a lot, so measure yours flat-footed against a wall. As a guide, with average proportions:
- 175 cm (5'9") tall — reach ~233 cm (7'8") — needs a ~87 cm (34 in) running vertical. Elite territory; a handful of athletes get there.
- 183 cm (6'0") — reach ~244 cm (8'0") — needs ~76 cm (30 in). Hard, and genuinely achievable for a dedicated athlete.
- 190 cm (6'3") — reach ~253 cm (8'4") — needs ~67 cm (26 in). Reachable for most athletic players with a proper block of training.
- 198 cm (6'6") — reach ~264 cm (8'8") — needs ~56 cm (22 in). Most trained athletes can get here.
Long arms shift everything in your favour, which is why you should measure rather than estimate. And note it is a running vertical that matters — almost nobody dunks from a standstill.
Find your starting line
Before training for the rim, get two numbers: your standing reach, and your best running jump. Mark your reach on a wall or backboard, then measure your best running touch and subtract. The gap between your touch and 320 cm (10 ft 6 in) is your project, in centimetres. The Metric Jump app measures your jumps from your phone and tracks them over time, and our guide to testing your vertical covers the full protocol, including the rim-touch test.
One-foot or two-foot: find your takeoff
Dunkers come in two types, and knowing yours changes everything downstream:
- One-foot dunkers take off a single plant leg at the end of a fast, long run-up — think fast-break tomahawks. This style rewards speed, single-leg reactive strength and a long, low penultimate step. Lighter, quicker players usually jump higher this way.
- Two-foot dunkers gather onto both feet and explode — think power dunks in traffic. This style rewards raw double-leg strength and a deep, fast gather, and it is more controllable in games.
Test both with a running touch and compare. Train both, but build your first dunk on your higher takeoff — you can add the second style later.
Dunk technique: the approach, the plant, the finish
The same legs dunk with a better run-up. Three or four accelerating steps, a long and low penultimate step that lets you gather, a fast plant, and a violent full arm swing are together worth 10 cm (4 in) or more compared to a hesitant approach — free height, no training required. Our guide to jumping technique breaks down each piece.
At the rim, the skill is ball control at the top of your jump. If you can palm the ball, the classic one-hand finish is available — and if you cannot, you are in the majority: two-hand dunks off a controlled gather, or a one-hand press finish with the ball held against your rising wrist, work without a palm. Our guide to palming a basketball and grip strength covers both the training and the workarounds.
The first-dunk progression
Do not jump straight from rim touches to a full-ball dunk attempt. Climb this ladder, moving up when the current step is comfortable on a fresh day:
- Rim touches. Both takeoff styles, full approach, until touching is routine rather than maximal.
- Wrist over the rim. The honest checkpoint — if your wrist clears, a dunk is physically there.
- Tennis ball, then a small ball. Dunk a tennis ball, then a size 5 or 6 ball. This teaches the timing of carrying something up and putting it down at your peak.
- Full ball off a self-toss. Toss the ball up ahead of your run so you catch it at the top of your jump — much easier than carrying it through the whole approach.
- Full ball, carried. The real thing: gather, jump, finish.
Attempt dunks only on fresh legs, a few maximal efforts at a time, with full recovery between. Ten tired attempts teach you to jump low.
The dunk workout: training that closes the gap
There is no special dunk exercise — a dunk workout is a vertical jump workout with a rim on the end of it. The qualities are the same five that decide how high you jump: mobility, technique, strength, power and elasticity, trained in that order. In a week that looks like two or three quality sessions — a strength day, a power and plyometrics day done fresh, daily five-minute mobility, and your dunk progression work folded into the power day when your legs are at their best. The exact exercises, from goblet squats to depth jumps, are in our full vertical jump workout.
If you would rather follow it than build it, our seven-week Boring Jump Program lays out every session in order. Athletes typically add 6–10 cm (2–4 in) — for a lot of players, that is exactly the distance between grazing the rim and dunking.
How long will it take?
Be honest about your gap, then pick the right plan:
- Grazing the rim now? You are a peaking block away. Our two-week dunk plan covers arriving fresh and springy instead of tired and tight.
- 10–15 cm (4–6 in) short? A focused three to six months of strength, power and technique work. Entirely realistic for most athletes.
- 20 cm+ (8 in+) short? A season-long project, stacked in 8–12 week blocks of 5–13 cm (2–5 in) each. Slower, but the same road — and every block, the rim gets closer.
Whatever the gap, measure every few weeks. The rim does not move; your numbers should.